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Journal of Business Venturing

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusvent

The dualistic regulatory effect of passion on the relationshipbetween fear of failure and negative affect: Insights from facialexpression analysis☆

Silvia Stroea,⁎, Charlotta Sirénb,c, Dean Shepherdd, Joakim Wincentc,e

a School of Management, Politecnico di Milano, Office 3.07, via Lambruschini 4b, BL26, 20156 Milan, Italyb The University of Queensland, UQ Business School, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, AustraliacGlobal Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, University of St. Gallen, Office 2-215, Dufourstrasse 40a, 9000 St. Gallen, SwitzerlanddMendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame, 363C Mendoza College of Business, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USAeDepartment of Management and Organization, Hanken School of Economics, Arkadiagatan 22, FI-00101 Helsinki, Finland

A R T I C L E I N F O

Keywords:Harmonious and obsessive passionNegative affectFear of failureFacial expression analysisAffective events theoryEarly-stage entrepreneurship

A B S T R A C T

Across two studies, we theorize and empirically investigate passion as a moderator of the ne-gative affective consequences of fear of failure in early-stage entrepreneurship. We test our hy-potheses in two field studies of naturally occurring affective events—namely, pitching compe-titions—and we complement self-reported measures of negative affect with physio-psychologicalmeasures obtained from analyzing entrepreneurs' facial expressions. The results confirm that infailure-relevant situations, dispositional fear of failure may lead to higher negative affect de-pending on the dualistic regulatory effect of passion—harmonious passion dampens the influenceof fear of failure on negative affect (Studies 1 and 2), while obsessive passion magnifies this effectin Study 1 but dampens it in Study 2, thus showing mixed evidence. Our work is one of the first toinvestigate how early-stage entrepreneurs experience negative affect during typical en-trepreneurial events as a result of their dispositional traits and their type and level of passion.

Executive summary

When entrepreneurs experience negative affect in the early stages of venturing, they face a host of detrimental consequences, suchas reduced opportunity exploitation, obstructed learning, narrower goals, and thus possibly a reduced likelihood of venture successand survival. Moreover, since negative affect is contagious, it is likely to have negative consequences beyond the entrepreneur andimpact those with whom the entrepreneur interacts: the founding team; new venture employees; and external stakeholders, such asinvestors and customers. Despite negative affect's important harmful effects on entrepreneurs' thinking, behavior, and interactionsand on venture success, there is very little empirical research on the antecedents of entrepreneurs' negative affect as they performentrepreneurial tasks. Our study aims to fill this important gap in the literature by responding to calls for more research on theantecedents of negative affect in entrepreneurship.

In the current study, we build on the tenets of affective events theory (AET) and examine the degree to which early-stage

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2019.105948Received 17 November 2018; Received in revised form 12 July 2019; Accepted 15 July 2019

☆We would like to thank the editor, Melissa Cardon, and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions that have helped tosignificantly improve the paper. We thank the Behavioral Lab of the University of St. Gallen for supporting this research.

⁎ Corresponding author.E-mail addresses: ioanasilvia.stroe@polimi.it (S. Stroe), charlotta.siren@unisg.ch (C. Sirén), dshephe1@nd.edu (D. Shepherd),

joakim.wincent@unisg.ch (J. Wincent).

Journal of Business Venturing xxx (xxxx) xxxx

0883-9026/ © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Silvia Stroe, et al., Journal of Business Venturing, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2019.105948

entrepreneurs experience negative affect during events typical of their profession. Building on the identity literature and the dualisticmodel of passion, we differentiate between harmonious and obsessive passion, acknowledge that there are different identity me-chanisms behind their functioning, and investigate their differential moderating effect on the positive relationship between dis-positional fear of failure and negative affect in the entrepreneurial context. We test our hypotheses in two field studies of pitchingcompetitions, which are naturally occurring affective events in which fear of failure likely generates negative affect, and we com-plement self-reported measures of negative affect with physio-psychological measures obtained from a facial expression analysis ofentrepreneurs. The results indicate that entrepreneurs high in fear of failure experience more negative affect and that passionmoderates this relationship between fear of failure and negative affect in different ways depending on its type: harmonious passiondampens the positive influence of fear of failure on negative affect (Studies 1 and 2), while obsessive passion magnifies this “fear offailure” effect in Study 1 but dampens the effect in Study 2, indicating that the relationship is more complex.

Our findings offer several important contributions. First, this paper is one of the first to investigate negative affect's antecedents inentrepreneurship beyond business failure. Building on AET and the identity literature, our study provides a rationale for why andhow entrepreneurs' stable dispositional traits and the processes underlying their entrepreneurial identity relate to situational out-comes, such as negative affect. Shedding light on the antecedents of negative affect in the entrepreneurial process might helpentrepreneurs understand their affective experiences better and thus make them more equipped to deal with negative affect and itsdetrimental consequences.

Second, we contribute to the growing literature on fear of failure in entrepreneurship. Unlike existing research, which is domi-nated by a static focus on fear of failure, the current study considers fear of failure as a latent potential residing in the individual, adispositional propensity responsive to events in the entrepreneurial process. Therefore, our study provides new insights into theconditions under which beliefs and cognitive schema stemming from fear of failure are activated, which is critical for understandingfear of failure and its impact on affective experiences.

Finally, the current study is unique in that it theoretically and empirically examines a different function of passion in the en-trepreneurial process—specifically, passion's role in governing the generation of entrepreneurs' negative affective experiences. Whilemany studies have connected entrepreneurs' passion to positive affect, in this study, we find that passion also plays an important rolein the experience of negative affect. In particular, our results offer empirical evidence that harmonious passion dampens the de-velopment of negative affect stemming from fear of failure. Since experiencing negative affect is generally detrimental for early-stageentrepreneurs, entrepreneurs should try to nurture harmonious passion.

1. Introduction

In the earliest stages of venturing, uncertainty is high, missteps are numerous, and pressures are great. Under such conditions, it isnot surprising that entrepreneurs experience negative affect, such as fear, anxiety, and worry (Patzelt and Shepherd, 2011). Thesenegative affective experiences can be detrimental because negative affect has been found to reduce opportunity recognition (Perry-Smith and Coff, 2011; Tang et al., 2012), evaluation, and exploitation (Foo, 2011; Grichnik et al., 2010; Welpe et al., 2012).Moreover, negative affect has been shown to be detrimental to learning (Shepherd, 2003; Shepherd et al., 2013) and to lead to anarrow set of goals (Delgado-García et al., 2012), withdrawal intentions (Pollack et al., 2012b), and less motivation to try again afterbusiness failure (Shepherd et al., 2009). Furthermore, the literature from neighboring fields suggests that negative affect could alsolead to reduced creativity (Isen, 2000) and the use of less effective stress-coping strategies (Carver and Scheier, 2001) and couldinhibit the formation of strong relationships (Brundin et al., 2008), all of which could be detrimental to new venture success (Baronand Tang, 2011; Davidsson and Honig, 2003). Moreover, unrelenting negative affect can take a toll on entrepreneurs' mental health,leading to negative well-being or burnout (Watson and Pennebaker, 1989).

Since negative affect can be contagious (Barsade, 2002), it is likely to have negative consequences not only for the entrepreneurbut also for others with whom the entrepreneur interacts: the founding team; new venture employees; as well as external stake-holders, such as investors or customers. For instance, negative affect tends to increase conflict between individuals who work to-gether (Barsade, 2002), such as cofounders of a new venture, and to diminish the chances of attaining optimal outcomes in nego-tiations (Forgas, 1998). Moreover, negative affect transferred to investors during pitch presentations might lead investors tonegatively interpret pitching entrepreneurs' motives and pay more attention to negative information in the pitches (Forgas, 1995),leading to less favorable evaluations of new ventures (Burger and Caldwell, 2000).

Despite negative affect's important detrimental effects on entrepreneurs' thinking, behavior, and interactions (Baron, 2008; Foo,2011; Foo et al., 2009; Grichnik et al., 2010) and on venture success and survival (Baron, 2008; Hayton and Cholakova, 2012), thereis very little research on the antecedents of negative affect in entrepreneurship. The few studies that have explored the antecedents ofnegative affect in entrepreneurship have focused on business failure as an antecedent of the negative affective experience of grief(Jenkins et al., 2014; Shepherd, 2003). The theoretical and empirical focus on the consequences of negative affect in entrepreneurshipcalls for new research to analyze the antecedents of entrepreneurs' negative affect beyond business failure and explain how en-trepreneurial tasks might influence the development of negative affective states. Our study aims to fill this gap in the literature byresponding to calls for research on the antecedents of negative affect in entrepreneurship (Cardon et al., 2012; Delgado García et al.,2015). The purpose of this research is to investigate how early-stage entrepreneurs experience negative affect during events typical oftheir profession as a result of fear of failure and how entrepreneurs' passion moderates this relationship. The novelty of our approachto investigating the determinants of negative affect in entrepreneurship stems from (1) our field study setting—pitching competitionevents, at which we collected entrepreneurs' negative affect as it naturally happened as a consequence of activated fear of failure (i.e.,in real time)—and (2) the introduction of the harmonious and obsessive passion moderators, which we hypothesize have differential

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moderating effects on the relationship between fear of failure and negative effect.The findings from this study make several contributions. First, we contribute to the literature on affect in entrepreneurship by

investigating negative affect's antecedents in the entrepreneurial context. So far, the literature on affect in entrepreneurship hasmainly focused on the consequences of negative affect or on the antecedents of aggregated affective constructs, such as job sa-tisfaction or burnout. Responding to calls for research on the antecedents of negative affect in entrepreneurship beyond businessfailure (Cardon et al., 2012; Delgado García et al., 2015), our work explores what causes active early-stage entrepreneurs to ex-perience negative affective states. We do so by combining two different positions on the predictability and consistency of affectiveexpressions across situations: dispositionism and situationism. Entrepreneurship is especially abundant in affective events, such aspitching competitions, but these events are still under-investigated as contexts in which individuals experience negative affect (Morriset al., 2012) despite AET informing us that state affect is elicited by events (Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996). Against this background,we highlight the intersection between entrepreneurs' inner and outer environments and contribute to the literature on affect inentrepreneurship by theorizing and empirically demonstrating how negative affect is determined by the interaction of entrepreneurs'dispositional traits and environmental events.

Second, we contribute to the literature on fear of failure in entrepreneurship. With some notable exceptions (Cacciotti et al., 2016;Kollmann et al., 2017), existing research has not explained much about fear of failure as it relates to the interaction between theperson and the entrepreneurial context. Rather, the literature is dominated by a static focus on fear of failure as an impeding factorfor entry into entrepreneurship (Arenius and Minniti, 2005). Such an approach leads to a limited understanding of the processesunderlying how entrepreneurs experience fear of failure during the entrepreneurial process.

Third, our results contribute to the literature on passion in entrepreneurship. The current study is unique in that it theoreticallyand empirically examines a different function of passion in the entrepreneurial process—specifically, passion's role in modulatingentrepreneurs' negative affective experiences. While many studies have connected entrepreneurs' passion to positive affect (e.g.,Cardon, 2008; Cardon et al., 2009), our theorizing and empirical findings indicate that passion also plays an important role in howentrepreneurs' fear of failure impacts their experience of negative affect while they are engaged in typical entrepreneurial activities.In particular, we report interesting differences between harmonious and obsessive passion, which have important implications forresearch.

2. An integrative view on the antecedents of entrepreneurs' negative affect

Whereas we do not know much about why entrepreneurs experience negative affect in their profession, researchers in theneighboring fields of social psychology and organizational behavior investigated the antecedents of state negative affect in samples ofstudents and employees. First, these studies uncovered individuals' dispositional traits (Gray, 1994), such as neuroticism (Eysenck,1990), narcissism (Stucke and Sporer, 2002), dispositional negative affectivity (Fisher, 2002), and fear of failure (Elliot, 1997; Martinand Marsh, 2003), as antecedents of state negative affect. Second, they looked into self-activity nexus constructs,1 such as self-efficacy(Jerusalem and Schwarzer, 1992), work autonomy (Sheldon et al., 1996), role conflict (Fisher, 2002), and passion (Vallerand et al.,2003). Third, they investigated situational variables, such as the work environment (Kiefer, 2005; Peters et al., 1980), organizationaland strategy change (Huy et al., 2014; Kiefer, 2005), social interactions (McIntyre et al., 1990), and stressful life events in general(Cohen et al., 1993).

While the findings of these previous works provide valuable insights into the broader category of antecedents of negative affect ingeneral life domains and in work settings, the great majority of this research was conducted in universities or in large establishedorganizations and with students or employees rather than new venture founders. This raises the question of whether such effectswould ever occur in new ventures and among early-stage entrepreneurs. Although very little empirical evidence on this issue iscurrently available, there appear to be reasons for suggesting that the process of new venture creation is very likely to stimulatenegative affective experiences. Specifically, because of the extreme uncertainty and unpredictability of entrepreneurship, the highpersonal risk to entrepreneurs, the close bond between entrepreneurs and their ventures, and the varied and ever-changing tasksentrepreneurs face (Baron, 2008), entrepreneurship is a particularly interesting setting for studying negative affective experiencesthat can provide important unique insights above and beyond what has previously been uncovered regarding the antecedents ofgeneral or work-related negative affect. Therefore, we seek to extend previous research by shedding light on some of the antecedentsof negative affect in the entrepreneurial context. Building on the social psychology and organizational behavior lead outlined above,in the current study, we theorize about how dispositional and self-activity nexus factors interact to determine the level of negativeaffect experienced within the entrepreneurial context. Specifically, building on the tenets of AET (Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996),which explains how negative affective responses to work events vary based on individuals' dispositional traits and the importance ofevents for individuals' self-concept, we examine the effect of entrepreneurs' dispositional fear of failure and passion on their ex-perience of negative affect during typical events within the entrepreneurial context. Moreover, building on work on identity re-levance (Burke, 1991; Thoits, 1991) and the dualistic model of passion (Vallerand et al., 2003), we differentiate between harmoniousand obsessive passion, acknowledge that there are different identity mechanisms underlying each type of passion, and theorize andempirically investigate their differential moderating effect on the positive relationship between dispositional fear of failure and

1 Self-activity nexus constructs are not attributes of the individual (a la trait) nor a quality of the activity that the individual engages in (a lasituational) (c.f. Cardon et al., 2005) but refer to self-concepts or attitudes that refer to a specific domain and reflect the standing of the self in thatparticular activity or task (Bandura, 1997).

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negative affect.We chose to embed our theorizing in the context of early-stage entrepreneurship because early-stage entrepreneurs2 are more

likely to experience negative affect than entrepreneurs in later stages. In early-stage venturing, entrepreneurs are more likely toexperience high psychological ownership over the success or failure of their new ventures. Indeed, at this stage, it is almost ex-clusively entrepreneurs' efforts and decisions that move early-stage ventures forward (Davidsson and Honig, 2003). The chances ofnew venture success overall depend on success in this vital stage. During early-stage venturing, numerous start-up activities occur,and many risky decisions are made, including decisions related to purchasing equipment and facilities, securing financial support,developing prototypes, organizing the team, hiring employees, and deciding whether and when to work full time in the venture(Carter et al., 1996). Early-stage entrepreneurs have heavy workloads and numerous commitments, face high personal and businessrisks as well as high-pressure evaluative situations (Harris et al., 1999; Stroe et al., 2018), and are thus highly likely to experiencenegative affect.

3. Fear of failure, affective events, and negative affect

In the earliest stages of venturing, entrepreneurs frequently face pressure-inducing situations. Some entrepreneurs enjoy theexcitement of such events, while others respond with increased negative affect to such circumstances. AET (Weiss and Cropanzano,1996) provides a framework for predicting the causes of individuals' affective reactions in the work context, modeling individualaffective variability in response to experiencing a single affective event. Specifically, AET builds on an interactionist perspective,integrates two relatively opposing positions regarding the antecedents of affective experiences (i.e., dispositionism and situationism),and looks at affect as a function of individual determinants and contextual aspects. In particular, AET acknowledges that situationalaffective states are jointly influenced by individuals' affective dispositional traits and by affective events in situational contexts thatinterfere with individuals' predisposed patterns. Dispositional traits thus act as latent predispositions and manifest themselves onlyunder particular environmental conditions; they predispose individuals to respond with greater or lesser intensity to either positive ornegative events (Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996). In the following sections, we build on AET to investigate how entrepreneurs' dis-positional fear of failure leads them to experience of negative affect.

Fear of failure is an avoidance-based motive disposition in the achievement domain (Atkinson, 1957; Elliot and Thrash, 2004). Asa domain-general dispositional trait (Elliot and Church, 1997), fear of failure serves an orienting function in achievement situations.Entrepreneurs with dispositional fear of failure have learned that failure is associated with aversive consequences, such as shame,guilt, and unworthiness, and have internalized such aversive consequences of failing into beliefs and cognitive schemas (Conroy andElliot, 2004; Elliot and Thrash, 2004). For an entrepreneur with high fear of failure, failure indicates global incompetence and carriesthe message that one is unworthy of appreciation. Thus, fear of failure establishes a framework for how an entrepreneur defines andexperiences failure and, consequently, feels, thinks, and acts in competence-relevant settings (Heckhausen, 1975). Previous researchon fear of failure in entrepreneurship has suggested that the cognitive and behavioral consequences of dispositional fear of failure canbe both detrimental and beneficial. For example, fear of failure can have a negative impact on entrepreneurial intentions (Areniusand Minniti, 2005), opportunity recognition, and exploitation decisions (Mitchell and Shepherd, 2010) as well as on subsequent re-engagement in an entrepreneurial career (Hessels et al., 2011). Fear of failure can also be beneficial to entrepreneurs in that it mightlead individuals to search for novel possible solutions (McGrath, 2001), focus attention for learning (Shepherd et al., 2011), stimulategreater effort and striving (Mitchell and Shepherd, 2010), and motivate increased engagement in entrepreneurial tasks (Cacciotti andHayton, 2014).

However, regarding the affective consequences of fear of failure, there are no findings regarding its beneficial outcomes: re-searchers agree that the impact of fear of failure is detrimental (Elliot, 1997; Martin and Marsh, 2003). For example, in the domain ofsports, fear of failure has been found to stimulate negative affect, such as worry, stress, and anxiety (Conroy and Metzler, 2004),which in turn adversely impacts both psychological well-being and relationship quality (Lavallee et al., 2009). In the work context,fear of failure has been found to be negatively associated with job satisfaction (Roberson, 1990) and positively associated withdepression (Coats et al., 1996). Recent research has similarly proposed that in the entrepreneurial context, fear of failure is likely totrigger negative affective reactions (Cacciotti et al., 2016), which is important given that a substantial body of research has high-lighted negative affect's detrimental outcomes (Baron, 2008; Hayton and Cholakova, 2012).

AET argues that dispositions like fear of failure are latent propensities that reside within individuals and manifest during affectiveevents, particularly those in achievement situations (McClelland, 1985). Achievement situations are generally characterized bycompetition and social comparison and often include emotionally meaningful evaluations of personal competence (Reeve, 2001).Such environmental events represent a threat for individuals with dispositional fear of failure because they can lead to failures thatreveal personal incompetence (to the self and important others). Individuals with dispositional fear of failure have learned that failureis associated with aversive consequences and have internalized these aversive consequences into their self-schemas (Elliot andThrash, 2004). Therefore, achievement and competence-relevant situations in which failure is possible represent affective events thatactivate entrepreneurs' beliefs regarding the aversive consequences of failure, predisposing them to make appraisals of threat.

Once such beliefs stemming from dispositional fear of failure become activated, entrepreneurs' attention will shift toward

2 Following the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (Reynolds et al., 2005; Reynolds and Curtin, 2008), we conceptualize early-stage entrepreneurialactivity as the phase that starts with the conception of a new venture, which includes the early stage of business development. This stage entails allthe efforts individuals put into starting up a new venture before it is legally registered and ends 3.5 years after the legal registration of the new firm.

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threatening environmental stimuli present in achievement situations (Conroy and Elliot, 2004; McClelland, 1985). Thus, dispositionalfear of failure will orient and direct attention such that entrepreneurs will attend to failure-relevant information in the environment.Not only do entrepreneurs with high fear of failure detect threat stimuli quickly, but they also have difficulty disengaging theirattention from threats (Fox et al., 2002) to attend to other stimuli, such as those that signal opportunity (see Shepherd et al., 2017).

During an affective event in which the possibility of failure is high—such as during a pitching competition in which an en-trepreneur's presentation of his or her venture is being evaluated by a panel of judges and by the public—the self-schema about theadverse consequences associated with failure inherent in an entrepreneur with dispositional fear of failure will be activated (Conroyand Elliot, 2004; McClelland, 1985), prompting the entrepreneur to perceptually and cognitively focus on the possibility of failure.Thus, when exposed to evaluative competence-relevant events, entrepreneurs with dispositional fear of failure will focus their at-tention on and attend to external threat stimuli perceived as personally dangerous (e.g., failing in the competition, failing at por-traying the venture in the best light, failing to deliver a persuasive presentation), the potential consequences of failure (e.g., globalpersonal incompetence, being unworthy of appreciation), and their own negative internal states (e.g., heightened negative cogni-tion). Based on the above reasoning, we contend that fear of failure will lead entrepreneurs to experience increased negative affectduring competence-relevant evaluative events. Thus, we offer the following baseline hypothesis:

Hypothesis 1. In early-stage venturing, entrepreneurs' dispositional fear of failure is positively related to their experience of negativeaffect.

4. Passion and appraisal of identity threats

In addition to individuals' affective traits, AET proposes that examining appraisal processes is important for gaining a full un-derstanding of how individuals' affective responses to work events vary. According to AET, experiencing affect is intricately tied toindividuals' assessments of the importance and relevance of events and their consequences for the self (Roseman, 1984; Weiss andCropanzano, 1996). Thus, the extent to which an individual experiences negative affect from fear of failure depends on the im-portance he or she places on the affective event in which failure is possible and, more generally, on the activity domain to which theaffective event belongs (Burke, 1996; Thoits, 1991; Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996). Some activity domains (e.g., entrepreneurship,sports), and thus the affective events that belong to them (e.g., venture pitching competition, championship match), can correspondto roles that are highly relevant for peoples' identities (e.g., entrepreneur, competitive athlete) (Philippe et al., 2010; Vallerand et al.,2003). The concept of identity, with its origins in social psychology, refers to roles and self-views as the basis of an individual's self-concept, which develops from childhood over the lifespan and provides a sense of individuality, meaning, and orientation in life(Stets and Burke, 2000). The core of an identity is the internalization of external social expectations associated with a role into one'sself-concept (Stets and Burke, 2000; Thoits, 1986). The strength of an emotional response to an affective event depends on howimportant the role identity (related to the activity domain to which the event belongs) is to one's overall self-concept (Burke, 1991;Thoits, 1991). From a stress-exacerbation perspective, an event in one's work environment that threatens a highly important identitygenerates a more negative affective reaction than threats to an identity that is less important to one's self-concept (Burke, 1996;Thoits, 1991). Conversely, from a stress-buffering perspective, identity offers individual coping resources that reduce stress bypreventing the stressor from affecting his or her self-concept (Martire et al., 2000; Wheaton, 1985).

The identity relevance of an activity for an individual is reflected in that individual's passion for that activity and the related role(Cardon et al., 2009; Murnieks et al., 2014; Vallerand et al., 2003). In line with passion's function of perpetuating and protecting anindividual's highly regarded internalized identity as an entrepreneur, passion likely plays a crucial role in how entrepreneurs react toidentity threats in the entrepreneurial domain. Passion refers to a strong inclination toward a self-defining activity that one loves,finds important, and invests a significant amount of time and energy into (Vallerand et al., 2003). Passionate activities can become soself-defining that they represent central features of an individual's identity and serve to define the person (e.g., “I am an en-trepreneur,” “I am a musician,” “I am a father”; Philippe et al., 2010; Vallerand, 2010). Based on the dualistic model of passion(Vallerand et al., 2003), we distinguish between harmonious and obsessive passion and investigate how the different identity in-ternalization processes (autonomous and controlled, respectively) influence entrepreneurs' capacity to cope with identity-threateningstressors.3

Harmonious passion results from an autonomous internalization of an activity into a person's identity, meaning that the personfreely (volitionally) accepts the activity as important to him or her without any contingencies attached to it (Vallerand et al., 2003);the person feels pleasure from engaging in this activity and pursues it because of the characteristics of the activity itself (e.g.,challenging, enjoyable). That is, harmoniously passionate individuals are not driven by external demands or rewards (e.g., self-worth,

3 Cardon and colleagues define entrepreneurial passion as “consciously available, intense positive feelings experienced by engaging in en-trepreneurial activities associated with roles that are meaningful and salient to the self-identity of the entrepreneur” (2009, p. 517) and highlightentrepreneurs' passion for three distinct entrepreneurial identities: inventor, founder, and developer. This conceptualization overlaps with ours inthat it recognizes that entrepreneurial activities become self-defining and part of the entrepreneur's self-identity such that he or she experiencesstrong identification with them (Murnieks et al., 2014). However, there are some differences between Cardon et al.'s (2009) and this study'sconceptualizations of passion. First, we study and measure entrepreneurial passion in regard to the entrepreneurial role as a whole (see also Ho andPollack, 2014; Murnieks et al., 2014). Second, while both perspectives include the notion of identification, the dualistic model of passion (Vallerandet al., 2003) highlights two ways in which entrepreneurial activities can be internalized into one's identity—one that is within an entrepreneur'scontrol (i.e., harmonious passion) and another that is not (i.e., obsessive passion).

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recognition) but by an intrinsic motivation to engage in an activity (Lafrenière et al., 2011). Engaging in the activity (e.g., early-stageventuring) does not overwhelm other aspects of these individuals' lives (Vallerand et al., 2003) but becomes well integrated with theirother life domains (e.g., spouse, parent, community member).

Accordingly, when entrepreneurs are harmoniously passionate about an entrepreneurial activity, the activity occupies a sig-nificant but not overpowering role in their identity, and they remain in control of the activity when engaging in it, which can helpentrepreneurs cope with identity threats. First, as a result of the integrative identity processes at play, harmonious passion likelyprovides entrepreneurs with more coping resources needed to deal with the negative emotional reactions that accompany identity-threatening situations, such as the evaluation of a pitch to potential investors. As such, despite their dispositional fear of failure,harmoniously passionate entrepreneurs will likely be less vulnerable to the emotional distress commonly felt in failure-relatedthreatening situations and more resilient to failure threats thanks to the secure sense of self-worth underlying this type of passion(LeRouge et al., 2006).

Second, harmoniously passionate entrepreneurs will be less likely to feel that their self-worth is threatened by the failure-relevantstimuli from evaluative situations and thus less likely to experience negative affect from fear of failure. Moreover, since harmoniouslypassionate entrepreneurs remain fully in control of venture activities (Vallerand et al., 2003), they can flexibly adapt to failure-related threatening situations without losing control of their emotions and can move on without dwelling mentally on eventualmistakes they might have committed.

Finally, harmoniously passionate entrepreneurs are more likely to experience mindful attention, concentration, absorption, andflow (i.e., the feeling that one is immersed in an activity; see Csikszentmihalyi, 1997) while performing venture-related activities likepitching (Vallerand et al., 2003). Such full investment in the activity at hand will likely reduce entrepreneurs' perceptions andprocessing of situational failure-relevant information, thereby dampening negative affective reactions from fear of failure. Based onthe above reasoning, we contend that harmonious passion will provide protective psychological resources, act as a stress buffer, andalter the link between dispositional fear of failure and negative affect. Thus, we offer the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 2. In early-stage venturing, the positive relationship between fear of failure and negative affect is less positive whenentrepreneurs have high harmonious passion than when entrepreneurs have low harmonious passion.

In contrast, obsessive passion stems from a controlled or pressured internalization of an activity into a person's identity, meaningthat the individual engages in the activity and views it as important because of outcomes or contingencies associated with theactivity, such as social acceptance, self-worth, and superiority (Vallerand et al., 2003). In turn, pressures and outcomes control theindividual and compel him or her to pursue the activity to achieve and sustain these outcomes. Therefore, with this type of passion,the activity is not under the person's control as it comes to occupy an overwhelming space in the person's identity, which likelyexacerbates identity threats. First, as a result of the internally controlling rather than integrative identity processes at play (Vallerandet al., 2003), obsessive passion will likely fail to provide sufficient coping resources for entrepreneurs to manage the negativeemotional reactions that accompany identity-threatening situations, such as evaluations from a judge panel. With obsessive passion,an entrepreneur's identity is attached contingently to the activity such that his or her self-worth depends on doing well in theentrepreneurial activity (Lafrenière et al., 2011). Since protecting one's self worth and avoiding loss of face are primary concerns forobsessively passionate entrepreneurs, obsessive passion will likely increase the negative pressure associated with the possibility offailure. Consequently, facing the risk of failing in evaluative situations likely becomes highly self-threatening for these entrepreneurssince failure would be considered evidence of their low ability and competence. Indeed, because so much depends on them doing wellin front of a judge panel (e.g., maintaining their role identity and their sense of self-worth) (Vallerand et al., 2007), obsessivelypassionate entrepreneurs will likely be highly aware of and sensitive to failure threats and therefore more likely to experiencenegative affect in such a context. Since obsessively passionate entrepreneurs are not in control of the activity they are passionateabout (Vallerand et al., 2003), they will lack the flexibility needed to adapt to failure-related threatening situations without losingcontrol of their emotions.

Second, obsessively passionate entrepreneurs are likely to dwell mentally on eventual mistakes they might have made whilepitching their venture to a panel of judges and engage in additional efforts to repair those mistakes (Philippe et al., 2009). Becauseobsessively passionate entrepreneurs feel pressured to engage in the activity they are passionate about, they will likely be unable tofocus on the task at hand and will likely find it difficult to fully disengage from performance thoughts related to pitching. Obsessivepassion causes a sense of insecurity, which will promote obstructive in-task cognition (e.g., rumination, catastrophizing, worry)(Curran et al., 2015).

Finally, obsessively passionate entrepreneurs are more likely to experience low levels of attention, absorption, and flow whileperforming entrepreneurial activities. Because of their high sensitivity to information related to their own and to their competitors'performance (Mageau et al., 2011; Vallerand et al., 2007) and their low task focus, obsessively passionate entrepreneurs will likelyhave increased perceptions and processing of situational failure-relevant information, thereby increasing their negative affectivereactions from fear of failure. Unlike harmonious passion, which remains in balance with other activities and aspects of an en-trepreneur's life, obsessive passion takes a more central role in an entrepreneur's identity and is more likely to lead to an exacerbatedemotional response to identity threats. Based on the above reasoning, we offer the following:

Hypothesis 3. In early-stage venturing, the positive relationship between fear of failure and negative affect is more positive whenentrepreneurs have high obsessive passion than when entrepreneurs have low obsessive passion.

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5. Study 1: methods

5.1. Empirical context and sample

AET, as well as the literature on fear of failure, informs us that latent dispositional traits, such as fear of failure, manifestthemselves during affective events involving evaluative situations with the potential for failure (Atkinson, 1957; McClelland, 1985).In such situations, beliefs and cognitive schema stemming from fear of failure and associated with the aversive consequences offailing are activated and generate specific affective responses (Conroy and Elliot, 2004). Therefore, we tested our hypotheses in thenaturally occurring setting of an early-stage venture competition because this setting represents an affective event likely to stimulateentrepreneurs' fear of failure.

A major entrepreneurship foundation in Germany organizes an annual start-up competition in which entrepreneurs present theirearly-stage ventures to a jury of experts and a general-public audience. To qualify for the competition, companies need to be earlystage, which the organizer checks in the pre-screening phase. The selected early-stage entrepreneurs create an online profile page onthe competition's official website, in which they described their new ventures using different materials, such as videos, pictures oftheir prototypes, PowerPoint presentations, and/or written descriptions. After the materials are posted, a 10-day evaluation phasestarts. In this phase, both the expert jury and the general-public audience allocate points to the participating ventures based oncertain criteria, such as product feasibility, market potential, gained traction, team competence, and investment readiness. We usedthis 10-day evaluation phase of the 2014 competition as our research setting because the high possibility of failure inherent in such asituation is likely to activate cognitive schema about the adverse consequences of failure and produce state negative affect.

Past analyses of negative affect's antecedents (Shepherd et al., 2009, 2011; Wolfe and Shepherd, 2015) have been based onretrospective interviews or surveys, which depend on entrepreneurs' memory. Similarly, the majority of research on affect in or-ganizational settings has used retrospective measures of affect, such as affect at work over the past week, month, or even six months(e.g., Jokisaari and Nurmi, 2005: Kafetsios and Zampetakis, 2008). Because state affect is variable and transient, it may be difficult torecall and report accurately long after it has occurred. Indeed, a large number of studies have shown that individuals systematicallyand often grossly overestimate the frequency and intensity with which they have experienced negative affect when reporting ret-rospectively compared to real-time reports during the same time period (Thomas and Diener, 1990). Thus, it was important for us tomeasure negative affect as it naturally happened during a real event (i.e., a competition) rather than measuring it retrospectively.Real-time affect lies at the heart of Weiss and Cropanzano's AET, and this study provides the opportunity to test a number ofrelationships built from the theory.

We contacted the entrepreneurs of the 815 participating ventures through the event organizer's weekly newsletter and invitedthem to complete our survey online. We incentivized survey participation by offering the chance to win two tickets to the mostpopular entrepreneurship practitioner conference in Germany. Before administering the survey, we pilot tested it with three doctoralresearchers, the event organizers, and two entrepreneurs. The pre-test of the instrument revealed that the respondents had nodifficulty answering any of the survey items, so we proceeded with administering the questionnaire.

We received responses from 110 entrepreneurs, representing a 13.5% response rate. Out of these responses, 22 were incomplete,and one had unacceptably low reliability (indicating that the person had not taken the survey seriously). After excluding theseresponses, the final sample size was 88 entrepreneurs (effective response rate of 10.8%).4 Of these respondents, 47% were 30 yearsold or younger, 80% were under 45 years old, and 70% were male. The surveyed entrepreneurs were highly educated, with 69%having earned a college degree, and they had an average of 2.5 years of previous founding experience. Our sample does not deviatenotably in terms of the key demographic variables (age and gender) from the 2014 German Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM)sample, indicating the representativeness of our sample.

5.2. Measures

5.2.1. Negative affect (dependent variable)To measure negative affect, we had participants indicate the extent to which they were experiencing negative affect at the

moment (during the evaluation period in which the judges and the general-public audience were assessing their pitches and beforeparticipants found out the competition results). Negative affect was captured using 10 items from the Positive and Negative AffectSchedule (PANAS) (Watson et al., 1988). The items were assessed on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (very slightly or not at all) to 5(extremely). Studies have shown that the PANAS has good psychometric properties (see Miller et al., 2005; Watson et al., 1988). Inthe present study, the negative affect measure has a Cronbach's alpha of 0.89.

5.2.2. Fear of failure (independent variable)We measured fear of failure with a nine-item scale by Houston and Kelly (1987), as used in McGregor and Elliot (2005). Parti-

cipants' responses ranged from 1 (I completely disagree) to 5 (I completely agree). A sample item is “I often avoid a task because I amafraid that I will make mistakes.” This scale also has good reliability with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.88.

4 It is difficult to ascertain the exact response rate for the study since the email invitation was sent to participants through the event organizer;thus, we do not have data on how many of the invitations were sent to inactive email addresses.

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5.2.3. Harmonious passion (moderator)We assessed harmonious passion using the six-item Passion Scale (Vallerand et al., 2003), which has demonstrated high levels of

validity and reliability across different activities and languages (e.g., Marsh et al., 2013; Vallerand et al., 2007). The five-point Likertscale ranged from 1 (I completely disagree) to 5 (I completely agree). This scale was adapted to gauge entrepreneurs' passion forrunning a business by replacing the words “this activity” in the original with the phrase “entrepreneurial activity” (e.g., Ho andPollack, 2014, who modified the scale to refer to work activities associated with entrepreneurial business) (see Appendix A). TheCronbach's alpha for the six harmonious passion items is 0.89.

5.2.4. Obsessive passion (moderator)Obsessive passion was also assessed using six items from the Passion Scale (Vallerand et al., 2003). Participants' responses ranged

from 1 (I completely disagree) to 5 (I completely agree). We changed item wording in the same way as for the harmonious passionitems (see Appendix A). The Cronbach's alpha for this measure is 0.84.

5.2.5. Control variablesThe tendency to experience negative affect from venture activities might differ depending on different personal characteristics,

such as age (Mroczek and Kolarz, 1998), gender (Fujita et al., 1991), educational background (Meeks and Murrell, 2001), andfounding experience (Podoynitsyna et al., 2012). Therefore, we controlled for these possible effects. We captured the entrepreneurs'age by asking them how old they were in years at the time of data collection. We also asked them to indicate their gender (which wecoded 0 for male and 1 for female), their highest level of education (measured from 1 [middle school] to 6 [PhD]), and their foundingexperience (the number of years they were involved in new venture activities overall). We also controlled for the positive affect theentrepreneurs experienced since research has shown that positive and negative affect could be related, especially during emotionaltimes, such as those experienced in a failure-relevant setting (Diener and Emmons, 1984). For this, we used 10 items of the PANAS(Watson et al., 1988). The scale has a Cronbach's alpha of 0.90.

5.3. Analytical approach

We tested the hypotheses using robust regression (Cook, 1977; Hamilton, 1991), rreg in Stata 14, as it resists the pull of outliersand generates robust standard errors. As recommended by Aiken and West (1991), we standardized the independent variables beforecalculating the interaction terms. New ventures are often initiated with one or a few founders, and these founders are often the onlysources of venture information. Therefore, like many other researchers, we were not able to use multiple informants in data col-lection. Since Study 1 relied on a cross-sectional survey and a single respondent from each firm, the results might be contaminated bycommon method bias. We analyzed the relationship between fear of failure and negative affect by controlling for the effects of anunmeasured latent method factor in a structural equation model (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Applying the unmeasured latent methodfactor did not significantly affect the relationship between fear of failure and negative affect (fear of failure→ negative affect withoutthe marker variable: coefficient= 0.591, p≤ .001 and fear of failure → negative affect with the method factor: coefficient= 0.571,p≤ .001). These tests indicate that common method bias is unlikely to unduly influence the results of Study 1.

6. Study 1: results

In Table 1, we provide descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations. To ensure that multicollinearity is not an issue, wecomputed variance inflation factor (VIF) scores. We found that all VIFs are substantially below the conservative cutoff value of 5.0(Studenmund, 1992); the highest VIF is 2.06, indicating that multicollinearity is unlikely to unduly influence the results of theanalyses.

We report the results of the hierarchical regression analysis in Table 2. Model 1 reports the baseline model with only controlvariables included, Model 2 includes the main effect from fear of failure on negative affect, Model 3 adds the direct effects fromharmonious and obsessive passion, and Model 4 reports the full model with interactions. A Wald linear restriction test showed that

Table 1Study 1—means, standard deviations, and inter-correlation matrix.

Variables Mean SD Min Max 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1 Negative affect 1.99 0.76 1 42 Age (in years) 34.51 10.60 17 64 −0.163 Gender 0.30 0.46 0 1 −0.22 −0.054 Education 4.11 1.27 1 6 0.05 0.24 −0.085 Founding experience 2.48 5.46 0 30 −0.16 0.52 −0.08 −0.026 Positive affect 3.84 0.74 1 5 −0.16 0.03 0.09 −0.08 0.167 Fear of failure 2.00 0.79 1 4.11 0.50 0.00 −0.17 −0.02 −0.05 −0.278 Harmonious passion 3.95 0.85 1 5 −0.12 −0.14 0.09 −0.13 0.01 0.65 −0.309 Obsessive passion 3.06 0.94 1 5 0.15 −0.02 −0.14 −0.11 0.03 0.47 −0.17 0.44

Notes. N = 88. All correlations |.22| and above are significant at 0.05 or below (two-tailed).

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Model 2 explains a significant amount of variance over and above the baseline model (F change= 37.03, p≤ .001). The coefficientfor fear of failure is positive and significant (β=0.43, p≤ .001), indicating that in early-stage venturing, entrepreneurs with higherfear of failure will experience more negative affect than entrepreneurs with lower fear of failure. Because we standardized thevariables, the beta coefficient means that an increase of 1 standard deviation in fear of failure would yield an increase of 0.43standard deviation in predicted negative affect. This finding provides support for Hypothesis 1.

In Model 3, we introduced harmonious and obsessive passion to examine their direct effect on negative affect before introducingthem as moderators. In Model 3, the coefficient for obsessive passion is significant and positive (β=0.25, p≤ .01), indicating thatthe higher the obsessive passion, the greater the negative affect. The coefficient for harmonious passion is not significant (β=−0.10,ns).

A Wald linear restriction test showed that Model 4 (the full model) explains a significant amount of variance over and aboveModel 3 (the main effects–only model) (F change=3.87, p≤ .05). The coefficient for the interaction of fear of failure and har-monious passion is significant and negative (β=−0.16, p≤ .05), and the coefficient for the interaction of fear of failure andobsessive passion is significant and positive (β=0.17, p≤ .05). To illustrate the nature of these relationships, we plotted them on ay-axis of negative affect and an x-axis of fear of failure for high (1 standard deviation above the mean [+1 SD]) and low (1 standarddeviation below the mean [−1 SD]) levels of the different types of passion.

In Figs. 1 and 2, the grey area around the lines represents the 90% confidence intervals. The interaction is significant if theconfidence intervals for the +1 SD and −1 SD lines do not overlap (Brambor et al., 2006). Fig. 1 illustrates the moderation ofharmonious passion. The moderation is significant only at the highest levels of fear of failure (fear of failure> 0.3). After that point,the positive relationship between increasing fear of failure and negative affect is less negative when harmonious passion is high thanwhen it is low. This finding provides support for Hypothesis 2.

As illustrated in Fig. 2, in early-stage venturing, the positive relationship between fear of failure and negative affect is morepositive when the entrepreneur has high obsessive passion (simple slope coefficient= 0.54, p≤ .001) than when the entrepreneurhas low obsessive passion (simple slope coefficient= 0.20, p≤ .05). This finding provides support for Hypothesis 3.

7. Study 2: methods

Despite the fact that the PANAS is a reliable and widely used scale to measure state negative affect (Crawford and Henry, 2004;Watson et al., 1988), it has received some criticism mainly because it relies on individuals' self-reports of affect (Cardon et al., 2012;

Table 2Study 1—hierarchical regression analysis for fear of failure, passion, and negative affect.

Dependent variable: negative affect Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4

ControlsAge (in years) −0.11

(0.10)−.15†

(.08)−.15†

(.08)−.16⁎

(.07)Gender −0.25

(0.18)−0.12(0.15)

−0.02(0.15)

0.02(0.14)

Education 0.07(0.09)

0.08(0.07)

0.09(0.07)

0.07(0.07)

Founding experience −0.06(0.10)

−0.04(0.08)

−0.02(0.08)

−0.05(0.07)

Positive affect −0.06(0.08)

0.06(0.07)

0.00(0.09)

0.03(0.08)

Direct effectsFear of failure .43⁎⁎⁎

(.07).41⁎⁎⁎

(.07).37⁎⁎⁎

(.07)Harmonious passion −0.10

(0.09)−0.13(0.08)

Obsessive passion .25⁎⁎

(.08).26⁎⁎⁎

(.07)

Moderation effectsFear of failure × Harmonious passion −.16⁎

(.08)Fear of failure × Obsessive passion .17⁎

(.07)R2 adj 0.02 0.32 0.36 0.45F-statistics 1.32 7.91⁎⁎⁎ 7.21⁎⁎⁎ 8.13⁎⁎⁎

F change 37.03⁎⁎⁎ 5.45⁎⁎ 3.87⁎

Notes. N = 88 in all models. Robust standard errors are in parentheses. Significances after F change are from a Wald linear restriction test.† ≤.10.⁎ p≤.05.⁎⁎ p≤.01.⁎⁎⁎ p≤.001 (two-tailed tests).

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Mauss and Robinson, 2009). It might be limiting to ask people how they feel because they do not always know, and even if they doknow, individuals can overstate or understate their affective experience because of social desirability issues. For example, en-trepreneurs might be reluctant to admit certain negative emotional experiences (Cardon et al., 2012). To overcome the potentiallimitations of self-reported data (Gasper and Clore, 2000), we conducted Study 2, in which we measured the negative affect variableusing psychophysiological measures obtained from analyzing entrepreneurs' facial expressions. Psychophysiological measurement isrelatively new to entrepreneurship research (see Jiang et al., 2019 as a recent example) and offers a novel way to examine variablesthat cannot be reliably reported or observed. It is a creative non-survey approach to capturing negative affect (in real time in a naturalsetting). We expected the results of Study 2 to corroborate the results of Study 1.

7.1. Empirical context and sample

The empirical context of the second study was similar to the one in Study 1: early-stage entrepreneurs participating in a pitchcompetition. The pitch competition took place in Finland in 2017 as part of a large start-up conference. However, unlike in Study 1, inStudy 2, we gathered the independent and dependent variables at different points in time. We gathered data about fear of failure,harmonious passion, obsessive passion, and the control variables using a survey administered before the pitch competition. Wecollected data on the entrepreneurs' negative affect by videoing each entrepreneur's pitch and analyzing the videos using a facialexpression algorithm.

The organizers of the pitch conference announced the 100 pre-selected entrepreneur participants before the competition. We sentan email with a link to the online survey to all 100 pre-selected entrepreneurs one week before the event, with two reminders five andthree days before the pitch event. We received 83 surveys back. However, we were unable to video 11 pitches, leaving us with asample of 72. In an additional data-gathering effort aimed at increasing the sample size, we contacted 54 of the pre-selected en-trepreneurs from the 2018 edition of the same competition for whom we were able to find contact details and for whom recordedvideos were available. Of these entrepreneurs, 13 filled out the survey in full, increasing our sample size to 85 (overall effective

Fig. 1. Study 1—interaction effect of fear of failure and harmonious passion on negative affect.

Fig. 2. Study 1—interaction effect of fear of failure and obsessive passion on negative affect.

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response rate 55.2%). The average age of the respondents was 34, and 75% were male. The respondents were highly educated—72%of them had a bachelor's or master's degree and 22% had a PhD. The respondents had an average of four years of previous foundingexperience.

7.2. Measures

7.2.1. Negative affect (dependent variable)To assess negative affect, we analyzed the recorded pitch videos using the facial expression algorithm Affectiva Affdex (www.

imotions.com), which detects facial landmarks and applies a set of rules based on psychological theories and statistical procedures toclassify discrete emotions (Ekman and Friesen, 1978, Facial Action Coding System). Trained by distinct statistical procedures, facialdatabases, and facial landmarks, the algorithm identifies a multitude of points on the face and measures how those points change asthe person's face moves (for detailed information regarding the software, see iMotions, 2016; for a validation study, see Stöckli et al.,2018). Facial expression analysis has been used in a variety of fields, including marketing (Teixeira et al., 2014), psychological(Leppanen et al., 2017), and psychiatric research (Broch-Due et al., 2018), but it is new to the management field (see Håkonssonet al., 2017, for a call for studies to apply this method in the management field).

We extracted facial expression data for anger, sadness, fear, and disgust from the pitch videos. We computed raw data corre-sponding to these negative emotions with a threshold of 95, meaning that we accepted only facial expressions that had at least a 95%probability of a human assessor rating the emotion equally to the Affdex algorithm. The threshold data is binary such that the value 1means that the probability that the pitcher expressed the emotion is 95% or higher, and 0 means that the probability that the pitcherexpressed the emotion is< 95%. We treated a rating of 0 as a lack of evidence of negative affect. Based on the binary threshold data,the Affdex algorithm calculates the relative percentage of time that each emotion is displayed by dividing the sum of those framesthat scored 1 by the total number of frames. This scoring procedure means that the data represents the percentage of time theparticipant displayed the particular facial expression. Negative affect is calculated as the sum of time percentage the participantdisplayed anger, sadness, fear, and disgust. In section 8, we report a sensitivity analysis using 90% and 80% thresholds.

7.2.2. Fear of failure (independent variable)We used the same scale as in Study 1 to capture fear of failure. The scale has a Cronbach's alpha of 0.83.

7.2.3. Harmonious and obsessive passion (moderator)Just as in Study 1, we used the Passion Scale (Vallerand et al., 2003) to measure harmonious and obsessive passion. In the present

study (i.e., Study 2), the Cronbach's alphas are 0.79 and 0.75, respectively.

7.2.4. Control variablesSimilar to Study 1, we controlled for the entrepreneurs' age, gender, educational background, founding experience, and positive

affect (Cronbach's alpha of 0.63). Because prior studies have discussed the possibility that entrepreneurs are always very passionateabout their ventures (Bird, 1989; Smilor, 1997), we controlled for the prevalence of general passion (Carbonneau et al., 2008;Vallerand et al., 2003) to ensure that a moderating effect is only due to the difference in the type of passion—harmonious versusobsessive—and not to the intensity of general passion. We measured general passion with four items from Vallerand et al.'s (2003)seminal work on passion and changed item wording in the same way as we did for the harmonious and obsessive passion items. Thescale has a Cronbach's alpha of 0.76.

8. Study 2: results

Similar to Study 1, we tested the hypotheses using robust regression, and we standardized the variables before creating theinteraction terms. In Table 3, we present the means, standard deviations, and correlations for Study 2. Similar to Study 1, we checkedfor multicollinearity among the variables. The highest VIF is 2.12, indicating that multicollinearity is unlikely to unduly influence the

Table 3Study 2—descriptive statistics and correlations.

Variables Mean SD Min Max 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1 Negative affect 0.50 1.25 0 7.642 Age (in years) 34.09 8.02 21 59 0.033 Gender 0.25 0.43 0 1 −0.13 0.074 Education 4.78 0.93 1 6 −0.03 0.33 0.115 Founding experience 4.43 4.99 0 30 0.14 0.41 −0.07 0.096 Positive affect 3.25 0.41 2.38 4.38 0.08 0.14 0.03 −0.07 0.017 Prevalence of passion 4.58 0.53 2.5 5 0.06 0.04 0.15 −0.23 0.26 0.158 Fear of failure 1.72 0.55 1 4 −0.02 −0.27 −0.03 −0.29 −0.16 −0.01 −0.289 Harmonious passion 4.01 0.64 2.17 5 0.08 0.00 0.21 −0.20 0.22 0.29 0.58 −0.1910 Obsessive passion 2.79 0.81 1 4.83 −0.08 −0.02 −0.07 −0.18 0.17 0.15 0.23 0.01 −0.05

Notes. N = 85. All correlations |.22| and above are significant at 0.05 or below (two-tailed).

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results. In Table 4, we present the results of the hypothesis testing. As a baseline model, Model 1 contains only the control variables.Model 2 evaluates Hypothesis 1, which proposes that fear of failure has a positive relationship with negative affect. The results ofModel 2 indicate that fear of failure has a positive relationship with negative affect (β=0.04, p≤ .05). A Wald linear restriction testindicated that the inclusion of fear of failure significantly improves the model vis-à-vis the baseline model (F change= 6.83,p≤ .05). These findings provide support for Hypothesis 1.

Similar to Study 1, in Model 3, we investigated the potential direct effects of harmonious and obsessive passion. While obsessivepassion has a significant negative relationship with negative affect (β=−0.07, p≤ .01), the relationship between harmoniouspassion and negative affect is only marginally significant (β=−0.06, p≤ .1). Hypothesis 2 proposes that in early-stage venturing,the positive relationship between fear of failure and negative affect is less positive when the entrepreneur has high harmoniouspassion than when the entrepreneur has low harmonious passion. A Wald linear restriction test indicated that the inclusion of theinteraction terms significantly improves the model vis-à-vis Model 3 (F change=5.04, p≤ .01). The results of Model 4 show thatharmonious passion weakens (negatively moderates) the positive relationship between fear of failure and negative affect (β=−0.03,p≤ .05). In Fig. 3, we plot the nature of this relationship. For low harmonious passion, increasing fear of failure has a positive effecton negative affect (simple slope coefficient= 0.06, p≤ .01). This finding provides support for Hypothesis 2.

Hypothesis 3 proposes that in early-stage venturing, the positive relationship between fear of failure and negative affect is morepositive when the entrepreneur has high obsessive passion than when the entrepreneur has low obsessive passion. Contrary to ourexpectations, the results of Model 4 show that obsessive passion weakens (negatively moderates) the positive relationship betweenfear of failure and negative affect (β=−0.08, p≤ .01). This finding does not provide support for Hypothesis 3. In Fig. 4, weillustrate the unexpected findings regarding Hypothesis 3. When obsessive passion is low, increasing fear of failure has a positiveeffect on negative affect (simple slope coefficient= 0.11, p≤ .001), whereas when obsessive passion is high, increasing fear offailure has a negative effect on negative affect, but the coefficient is not significant (simple slope coefficient=−0.05, p= .11).

Since facial expression analysis is new to the management field and there are only a few guidelines for setting threshold values, weperformed sensitivity analyses and tested Model 4 (in Table 4) using 90% and 80% thresholds. The results and their significancelevels remain substantially the same (as those reported above) with the 90% threshold (fear of failure × harmonious passion:β=−0.07, p≤ .05; fear of failure × obsessive passion: β=−0.16, p≤ .001) and with the 80% threshold (fear of failure ×harmonious passion: β=−0.09, p≤ .05; fear of failure × obsessive passion: β=−0.20, p≤ .01).

Table 4Study 2—results of hierarchical regression analyses.

Dependent variable: negative affect Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4

ControlsAge (in years) 0.00

(0.01)0.01(0.02)

−0.01(0.03)

−0.02(0.02)

Gender 0.02(0.02)

−0.01(0.04)

0.01(0.05)

0.02(0.04)

Education 0.01(0.01)

0.01(0.02)

−0.01(0.02)

0.00(0.02)

Founding experience −0.01(0.01)

−0.01(0.02)

0.01(0.03)

−0.02(0.02)

Positive affect −0.01(0.01)

−0.01(0.02)

0.03(0.02)

0.03(0.02)

Prevalence of passion 0.01(0.01)

−0.00(0.02)

0.03(0.03)

0.04(0.02)

Direct effectsFear of failure .04⁎

(.02).04†

(.02)0.03(0.02)

Harmonious passion −.06†

(.03)−.06⁎

(.02)Obsessive passion −.07⁎⁎

(.02)−.08⁎⁎⁎

(.02)

Moderation effectsFear of failure × Harmonious passion −.03⁎

(.02)Fear of failure × Obsessive passion −.08⁎⁎

(.03)R2 adj 0.00 0.02 0.10 0.21F-statistics 0.50 1.21 2.05⁎ 3.05⁎⁎

F change 6.83⁎ 5.32⁎⁎ 5.04⁎⁎

Notes. N = 85 in all models. Robust standard errors are in parentheses. Significances after F change are from a Wald linear restriction test.† ≤.10.⁎ p≤.05.⁎⁎ p≤.01.⁎⁎⁎ p< .001 (two-tailed tests).

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9. Post hoc analyses

We conducted several post hoc analyses. First, we used survey data collected in Study 2 to replicate the empirical models in Study1 one to one. Instead of measuring negative affect with facial expression analysis, like in the main analyses of Study 2, we used ameasure of negative affect collected in the survey with the short PANAS scale as an outcome variable. Similar to the results from themain analyses of Study 2, the relationship between fear of failure and negative affect is positive and significant (β=0.05, p≤ .01)when the survey measure of negative affect was used. Furthermore, harmonious passion negatively moderates this relationship butonly with marginal significance (β=−0.03, p≤ .1). The moderation coefficient of obsessive passion is not significant when the self-reported measure of negative affect was used.

Second, research has shown that entrepreneurial passion is related to entrepreneurial self-efficacy as they both highlight theimportance of engaging in activities that are meaningful for one's self-identity (Cardon and Kirk, 2015). As such, we tested the modelsreported in Study 1 while controlling for entrepreneurial self-efficacy. We measured entrepreneurial self-efficacy using the 15-itemscale originally developed by Chen et al. (1998) and later modified by Forbes (2005). Our investigation of correlations shows thatself-efficacy has a modest positive correlation with harmonious (r= 0.41, p≤ .001) and obsessive passion (r= 0.35, p≤ .01). Theresults of the regression analysis after controlling for entrepreneurial self-efficacy mainly confirm the findings of the main analysis:fear of failure is positively associated with negative affect (β=0.40, p≤ .001), and obsessive passion (β=0.16, p≤ .05) moderatesthe positive relationship between fear of failure and negative affect in the manner hypothesized. However, the interaction betweenfear of failure and harmonious passion is only weakly significant (β=−0.15, p≤ .1), but the coefficient is in the expected direction.The coefficient for self-efficacy is significant only in the control model (β=−0.22, p≤ .05).

Third, we collected data on firm age in Study 2 from secondary sources, including Orbis, Crunchbase, and company websites. Wefound this information for all the companies except one, resulting in a sub-sample of 84 firms. The average firm age at the year thepitching event took place was 0.86 year. We included firm age as a control variable to test whether it affects the results of the mainanalysis. The results largely confirm the findings of the main analysis: fear of failure has a positive, although only marginally

Fig. 3. Study 2—interaction effect of fear of failure and harmonious passion on negative affect.

Fig. 4. Study 2—interaction effect of fear of failure and obsessive passion on negative affect.

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significant, relationship with negative affect (β=0.03, p≤ .1), and both harmonious passion (β=−0.06, p≤ .05) and obsessivepassion (β=−0.11, p≤ .01) negatively moderate the positive relationship between fear of failure and negative affect. The coef-ficient for firm age is not significant in the models.

10. Discussion

The aim of this paper is to uncover the negative affective experiences stemming from entrepreneurs' fear of failure and tounderstand how different types of passion influence these affective reactions. We situate our study in a particularly relevant set-ting—namely, the naturally occurring context of early-stage entrepreneurs pitching their ventures to external audiences. We chosethis context because entrepreneurs are likely to experience negative affect from fear of failure in this setting likely given the widerange of potentially negative feedback. We conducted two studies in which negative affect was captured with self-reported andpsychophysiological measures. Our results indicate that entrepreneurs high in fear of failure experience more negative affect and thatpassion moderates this relationship between fear of failure and negative affect. Specifically, while both studies show that harmoniouspassion dampens the influence of fear of failure on negative affect, the results of the two studies differ in terms of obsessive passion'smoderating role in the relationship between entrepreneurs' fear of failure and their experience of negative affect while engaged in anentrepreneurial activity. While the first study indicates that obsessive passion magnifies the relationship between entrepreneurs' fearof failure and their experience of negative affect as self-reported by entrepreneurs, we find the opposite in Study 2—namely, thatobsessive passion dampens the relationship between entrepreneurs' fear of failure and their experience of negative affect as reflectedin entrepreneurs' facial expressions. Together, these studies make a number of contributions to the entrepreneurship literature.

First, we contribute to the literature on affect in entrepreneurship by investigating antecedents of negative affect in entrepreneurs.So far, the literature on affect in entrepreneurship has mainly focused on the consequences of negative affect or on the antecedents ofaggregated affective constructs, such as well-being or burnout. Following calls for research on the antecedents of state negative affectin entrepreneurship beyond business failure (Cardon et al., 2012; Delgado García et al., 2015), our work investigates what leadsactive early-stage entrepreneurs to experience negative affective states. We do so by integrating two relatively opposing positions onthe predictability and consistency of affective expressions across situations: dispositionism and situationism. Based on the interac-tionist principle of AET (Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996), we theorize (and empirically support) that entrepreneurs' dispositional fear offailure leads them to experience negative affect during the situational event of a pitching competition. Building on AET to investigatethe antecedents of momentary negative affect, our study considers both the situational context and the dispositional traits of theentrepreneur. Existing entrepreneurship and organizational behavior studies on personality dispositions as determinants of affecthave mostly examined affective experiences not as state affect itself but as related aggregated affective constructs, such as jobsatisfaction (Müller and Gappisch, 2005), well-being (Srivastava et al., 2001), and burnout (Perry et al., 2008); fewer studies havelooked at the antecedents of real-time affective phenomena, such as momentary emotions or moods (Delgado García et al., 2015;Weiss and Kurek, 2003). If we are to go beyond predicting affective aggregates and use entrepreneurs' stable dispositional char-acteristics to explain state affect as it is experienced (i.e., varying over time), we must focus on how dispositional constructs interactwith varying environmental events. Entrepreneurial activities are particularly rich in affective events, such as pitching competitions,but these events are still underexplored as contexts in which individuals experience negative affect (Morris et al., 2012). Nevertheless,we know from the literature that state affect is elicited by events (Lazarus, 1991). Although most emotion theories argue that theseevents mark the starting point of affective states, the events entrepreneurs experience are not entirely externally caused or random.Experienced events are filtered through entrepreneurs' perceptions, and aspects of their personality may influence their reactions tothese events. Against this background, we emphasize the interface between entrepreneurs' inner and outer environments and con-tribute to the literature on affect in entrepreneurship by theorizing and empirically demonstrating how negative affect is determinedby entrepreneurs' fear of failure and passion in the context of an affective event that is typical to entrepreneurship. Gaining awarenessof the conditions under which their latent dispositional fear of failure might result in negative affect could help entrepreneurs makesense of their affective processes and thus make them more equipped to deal with negative affect and its detrimental consequences.Indeed, a clear understanding of the sources of one's affective experiences is a pre-condition for functional self-regulation of negativeaffect (Boden and Thompson, 2015).

Second, we contribute to the growing literature on fear of failure in entrepreneurship. With the exception of Cacciotti et al. (2016)and Kollmann et al. (2017), who recognize that fear of failure is responsive to the environment in which the entrepreneur is active,existing research does not consider the experience of fear of failure in entrepreneurship as it relates to an interaction between theperson and the entrepreneurial context. The extant literature is dominated by a static focus on fear of failure as a precluding factor forentry into entrepreneurship (Arenius and Minniti, 2005). Such an approach leads to a somewhat limited understanding of thedynamics underlying how entrepreneurs experience fear of failure during the entrepreneurial process. In contrast, the current studyconsiders fear of failure as a latent dispositional trait responsive to events in the entrepreneurial process, whose negative emotionaleffects depend on the situation in which the entrepreneur finds him- or herself. By placing our study in the naturally occurring settingof early-stage venture pitching competitions, our study helps clarify when beliefs and cognitive schema stemming from fear of failureget activated, which is critical for understanding fear of failure in the entrepreneurial context and its impact on affective experiences.Moreover, although fear of failure is considered an enduring characteristic of the individual (e.g., Arenius and Minniti, 2005; Hesselset al., 2011), we theorize and find that this fear may not always be highly salient. Our results show that an entrepreneur's affectiveresponse to fear of failure can be dampened or magnified depending on the type of passion he or she has for the entrepreneurialactivity. Thus, when investigating fear of failure in entrepreneurship, researchers need to consider not only the situational context butalso other characteristics of entrepreneurs that might impact the affective consequences of fear of failure in response to important

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events throughout the entrepreneurial process.Finally, our results contribute to the literature on passion in entrepreneurship. Although the literature on the role of passion in the

entrepreneurial process has grown substantially over the past few years and has made many important contributions to our un-derstanding of entrepreneurial motivation and action (e.g., Bélanger et al., 2013; Cardon et al., 2009; Cardon and Kirk, 2015;Murnieks et al., 2014), the current study is unique in that it theoretically and empirically examines a different function of passion inthe entrepreneurial process—specifically, passion's role in modulating entrepreneurs' negative affective experiences. While manystudies have connected entrepreneurs' passion with positive affect, our findings indicate that passion also plays an important role inthe experience of negative affect. Research on passion in entrepreneurship has suggested that passion leads to persistence in theentrepreneurial process and keeps entrepreneurs on track (Cardon et al., 2009; Murnieks et al., 2014). However, to date, no study hasexamined whether these effects are due (at least in part) to passion's governing role over entrepreneurs' experience of negative affectduring affective events. Seminal works on passion have recognized the close bond between passion and identity (Cardon et al., 2009;Murnieks et al., 2014; Vallerand et al., 2003). Our study starts from this notion of a close bond and offers new insights into theidentity mechanisms underlying passion, especially into the role these mechanisms play in the development of negative affect.Specifically, we acknowledge that there are two ways passion can relate to identity depending on the type of passion—an autono-mous way for harmonious passion and a controlled way for obsessive passion—and we find partial evidence that these two identityprocesses have different effects on how entrepreneurs affectively process stimuli from events. By integrating passion into our model,we show the importance of identity processes for entrepreneurs' experience of negative affect. Also, in demonstrating passion'smoderating role, we offer an additional and complementary explanation for the importance of passion throughout the en-trepreneurial process.

Indeed, we report interesting differences between harmonious and obsessive passion, which have important implications forresearch. In particular, our results offer empirical evidence that harmonious passion dampens the influence of fear of failure onnegative affect. Therefore, we uncover an additional functional outcome of harmonious passion besides those already studied(Houlfort et al., 2013; Liu et al., 2011): the ability of harmonious passion to act as a buffer against negative affect from fear of failure.Entrepreneurs might not be able to change their dispositional fear of failure in the short run or avoid affective events; however,developing harmonious passion appears to be desirable in dealing with negative affect from fear of failure.

Our replication efforts in Study 2 have additional and perhaps previously unrecognized theoretical and empirical implications.Specifically, the results of the two studies differ as to the direction of the moderating effect of obsessive passion: while the first studyshows an exacerbating effect of obsessive passion on the relationship between fear of failure and negative affect, we find the oppositein Study 2. This difference in findings is interesting. We reason that a possible explanation for the unexpected result in Study 2 couldbe the context: a pitching competition in which entrepreneurs present their new venture on stage in front of investors and industryexperts. For this kind of pitching task entrepreneurs normally prepare well and practice in advance, and for the 5min they have onstage, they are focused exclusively on their presentation since a lot depends on them doing well in such a task. Although obsessivelypassionate entrepreneurs normally have increased perceptions and processing of failure-relevant situational stimuli, in the particularcontext of a pitching task, obsessively passionate entrepreneurs may lack the time and the cognitive space available to perceive andinterpret situational failure-relevant information because their cognitive resources will be increasingly devoted to the presentationthey are conducting. Indeed, strategic communication research (Berger, 1995, 1997; Levelt, 1989) has explained that delivering amessage that is planned and rehearsed in advance has heavy processing demands, leaving insufficient attentional capacity to carryout other cognitive activities. Orally presenting the pre-assembled phrases and scripts of their business pitch and trying their best tomake the content of their presentation persuasive require conscious and deliberative effort and are likely to heavily tax obsessivelypassionate entrepreneurs' attention and processing resources (Berger, 1997). Clearly, as the presenting entrepreneur devotes atten-tional capacity to strategic message features, his or her opportunity to carefully monitor the environment and audience decreases,thereby reducing his or her capacity to perceive situational failure-relevant information. Thus, in this case, the task-specific char-acteristics (e.g., full concentration on the content being presented and attention to speech rate, vocal intonation, vocalized pausing,facial expression, body language, and time restrictions) might override obsessively passionate entrepreneurs' usual attentional biastoward situational failure-relevant information. Put differently, the demands of the pitching task might reverse the negative sideeffect of obsessive passion. Taken together, while obsessive passion might not have a detrimental moderating effect on the re-lationship between fear of failure and negative affect when the entrepreneur is publicly presenting a pre-rehearsed pitch, obsessivepassion might still have a detrimental effect as soon as the entrepreneur has more time and cognitive capacity to have off-taskthoughts and perceive, process, and ruminate about failure-relevant information.

11. Limitations and future research

As with all studies, the current study has a number of limitations that lead to avenues for future research. First, the cross-sectionalnature of the data for Study 1 calls for prudence in interpreting causality even though the nature of the constructs supports it (Shooket al., 2004). In Study 2, we eased this concern by separating the measurement of the independent and dependent variables. Futurestudies using a longitudinal research design and repeated measurements could help us further understand the dynamic interplaybetween short-term affective reactions, long-term affect, and dispositional traits.

Second, the size of the samples is a potential limitation of our study as smaller sample sizes tend to decrease statistical power(Aiken and West, 1991; Jaccard et al., 1990). However, in video-based research of entrepreneurial pitching, smaller sample sizes arenot uncommon because of the difficulty in collecting this type of data (e.g., Pollack et al., 2012a, Study 1). It is also important tomention that such entrepreneurial pitching events are not easily accessible by researchers, and it is even more difficult to obtain

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permission to film the pitches due to privacy concerns and disclosure risks of sensitive information. Despite our sample size lim-itations, our findings provide evidence that is generally consistent with our a priori hypothesized patterns. Nonetheless, futureresearch should seek to employ larger sample sizes whenever possible.

Third, we collected data for both our studies from early-stage entrepreneurs at pitching competitions, a setting that is highly likelyto activate entrepreneurs' cognitive schema about the aversive consequences of failure stemming from dispositional fear of failure.Although this sample and research design were required to test our hypothesized theoretical mechanisms (Cacciotti et al., 2016;Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996), these conditions may impose some limitations on the generalizability of the findings across othergroups of entrepreneurs or for other affective events. Moreover, our sample for Study 1 uniquely consists of entrepreneurs based inGermany, which might limit the generalizability of our results across cultures. Study 2, however, alleviates this issue somewhat sincethe participants were international entrepreneurs from various countries. Nevertheless, we encourage further work to replicate ourfindings in other settings and extend the conceptual model.

Fourth, although the automated facial expression algorithm we used in Study 2 is based on the de facto standard (Ekman, 2003;Ekman and Friesen, 1978, Facial Action Coding System) for measuring emotional facial expressions and although the algorithm hasanalyzed more than five million faces in 75 countries, it does have some limitations that need to be considered. Although the classicalstudies by Ekman and colleagues have demonstrated that facial expressions of emotions are universally recognized (e.g., Ekman andFriesen, 1971), the psychology literature has debated the universality of emotions (see the meta-analysis Elfenbein and Ambady,2002). Currently, automated facial expression algorithms do not integrate cultural or contextual aspects into emotion recognition(Stöckli et al., 2018). Adding cultural aspects to the algorithm would greatly increase its validity. Moreover, automated facial ex-pression algorithms cannot offer any information about possible differences between emotion experienced and emotion expressed.Work on emotion regulation by Gross (2002) suggests that even when individuals experience an emotion, they may not visiblyexpress the emotion. Individuals can use emotion-regulation strategies that change how they experience an emotion or suppress itsexpression. Although the algorithm we used recognizes micro-emotions that cannot be regulated (Ekman, 2003), we acknowledgethat facial expression algorithms may not be able to account for the possible regulation of expressive forms of emotion. Furthermore,by complementing facial emotion recognition with further biometric measures (i.e., galvanic skin responses, heartrate variability, andso on), future research could better clarify how (or whether) the experiential intensity of negative affect can be influenced byentrepreneurs' suppression of their facial expressions when pitching their ventures.

Fifth, although we focus on the moderating effect of passion on the affective consequences of fear of failure, the same mechanismsmay extend to other consequences of fear of failure in the entrepreneurial context and/or other contexts. Future research caninvestigate whether passion's moderating role extends to the motivational, cognitive, and behavioral consequences of fear of failurein other entrepreneurial contexts and in other managerial contexts. In particular, fear of failure is thought not only to have aninhibitory effect on entrepreneurial action but also to stimulate greater striving in some instances (Cacciotti et al., 2016; Mitchell andShepherd, 2010). Considering that we theorized and found partial proof that the two types of passion play different moderating rolesin the relationship between fear of failure and negative affect, future research can contribute by investigating whether the two typesof passion play different moderating roles in the relationship between fear of failure and, for example, the amount of effort en-trepreneurs invest in their ventures. Such research can help determine whether an optimal balance, or tipping point, exists forregulating fear of failure beyond which the effects are detrimental rather than beneficial for entrepreneurs and new ventures. Alongthe same line of thinking, future research could also investigate whether regulating fear of failure's affective consequences is alwaysdesirable. For example, depending on the situation, negative affect might have beneficial outcomes. Negative emotions can indicatethat things are not going fine; thus, when they experience negative emotions, entrepreneurs may be more likely to systematicallyaddress the root problem and process information carefully before finding a solution or deciding on a course of action (Schwarz andClore, 2003). Moreover, negative affect might indicate that progress toward accomplishing existing tasks is slower than desired, thusleading entrepreneurs and others to exert more effort on those tasks (Foo et al., 2009). While negative affect is clearly detrimental in apitching presentation, it would be interesting to investigate situations in which negative affect may be beneficial and understand theconsequences of passion's moderating effects in more detail.

Finally, future research can help increase our understanding of the moderating role of harmonious passion and obsessive passionin the development of state affect by exploring, for example, different affective states governed by passion and the momentarycircumstances at play. For example, it would be interesting to understand the regulatory functions of passion that increase or suppresspositive momentary affect rather than—or in addition to—negative momentary affect. With a focus on the relationships involved inthe generation of positive affect, is the nature of the moderating relationships of the different types of passion the opposite to what wefound in the current study? Furthermore, in this study, we looked at the differential moderating effect of different forms of pas-sion—harmonious and obsessive. Future research could apply Cardon et al.'s (2009) conceptualization of entrepreneurial passion andinvestigate whether entrepreneurs' passion for three distinct entrepreneurial identities—inventor, founder, and developer—moderatethe experience of negative affect from fear of failure differently depending on the affective event's domain. As such, it could be thatentrepreneurs with fear of failure and entrepreneurial passion for growing ventures experience more negative affect in situations thatevaluate their ability to nurture, grow, and expand ventures than in situations that evaluate their ability to identify, invent, andexplore new opportunities.

12. Conclusion

In conclusion, our study finds that entrepreneurs experience negative affect from dispositional fear of failure in different waysdepending on the type of passion. Specifically, the more entrepreneurs experience harmonious passion, the less intense their negative

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affective reactions to fear of failure will be. In contrast, the moderating effect of obsessive passion seems to be more complex andpossibly has both a positive and a negative direction. We hope that our findings inspire future research on the moderating effect ofpassion on different types of affective reactions throughout the entrepreneurial process.

Declaration of Competing Interest

None.

Appendix A. The Passion Scale Items adapted from Vallerand et al. (2003)

Harmonious Passion1. My role as an entrepreneur is in harmony with the other activities in my life.2. The new things that I discover in my entrepreneurial activity allow me to appreciate it even more.3. My entrepreneurial activity reflects the qualities I like about myself.4. Being an entrepreneur allows me to live a variety of experiences.5. My entrepreneurial activity is well integrated in my life.6. Being an entrepreneur is in harmony with other things that are part of me.Obsessive Passion1. I have difficulties controlling my urge to work on my entrepreneurial activity.2. I have almost an obsessive feeling for my entrepreneurial activity.3. My entrepreneurial activity is the only thing that really turns me on.4. If I could, I would only work on my entrepreneurial activity.5. Being an entrepreneur is so exciting that I sometimes lose control over it.6. I have the impression that my role as an entrepreneur controls me.

General passion (used as a control in Study 2)1. I spend a lot of time doing my entrepreneurial activity.2. I like my role as an entrepreneur.3. My entrepreneurial activities are important for me.4. My role as an entrepreneur is a passion for me.

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